New colorimetric and fluorometric sensing strategy based on the anisotropic growth of histidine-mediated synthesis of gold nanoclusters for iodide-specific detection.

Iodide, as a biologically important anion, it remains a worthwhile yet challenging undertaking to find a sensitive and specific approach to provide a technically simple iodide detection. In this article, it was found that no other ions than iodide-induced anisotropic growth of gold nanocrystals (AuNCs) originated from a small molecule, histidine-mediated synthesis of AuNCs, were observed. Simultaneously, it is accompanied by the fluorescence quenching of AuNCs and the naked-eye visible color change. Therefore, a new colorimetric and fluorometric sensing strategy was developed for the iodide-specific detection. Compared with currently reported methods, the present one displays the advantages of the visual detection and simplicity. The quenched fluorescence and enhanced surface plasmon resonance absorbance were found to be proportional to the iodide concentration over the range of 0.8-60 and 1.2-50 μM with a detection limit (3σ) of 118 nM and 215 nM, respectively.